The Cheesecake Factory® concept is the key driver of our business today, generating approximately 90% of our revenues. The Cheesecake Factory® restaurants provide a distinctive, high quality dining experience at moderate prices. We offer an extensive, innovative and evolving menu in an upscale casual, high energy setting with attentive, efficient and friendly service. As a result, The Cheesecake Factory® restaurants appeal to a diverse consumer base across a broad demographic range.
The depth and breadth of our menu enables us to compete for substantially all dining preferences and occasions, from the key lunch and dinner day parts to the mid-afternoon and late-night day parts, or “shoulder” periods, which are traditionally weaker times for most casual dining restaurants. Our restaurants also offer weekend brunch. The Cheesecake Factory® menu features approximately 250 items, including items presented on supplemental menus, such as our SkinnyLicious® menu, which offers innovative items at 590 calories or less. We offer a broad array of options, including choices that are considered “gluten-free” under current regulations, as well as approximately 50 varieties of cheesecake and other quality baked desserts. Each of our generously proportioned menu items, except desserts manufactured at our bakery production facilities, are all handmade in-house with fresh ingredients including more than 70 different sauces, dressings and marinades. All items on our menu are available for take-out, which represented approximately 12% of our restaurant sales in 2017.
All of our restaurants offer a full-service bar where our entire menu is served. Alcoholic beverage sales represented approximately 13% of our restaurant sales in 2017¹.
Our ability to create, promote and attractively display our unique line of desserts is also important to the competitive positioning and financial performance of our restaurants. Our brand identity and reputation for offering high quality desserts results in a significant level of dessert sales, which represented approximately 16% of The Cheesecake Factory® restaurant sales in 2017¹.
The average check for each The Cheesecake Factory® guest, including beverages and desserts, was $21.85 in 2017².
¹ As a percentage of company-operated restaurant sales.
² Average check for company-operated restaurants.